GRAND COUNTY, Utah — A Norovirus outbreak in Grand County is forcing schools to close tomorrow and Monday, as they deal with this outbreak. Norovirus is highly contagious.
The symptoms are mainly nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. and can also include stomach cramps, fever and headache.
Taryn Kay, superintendent of Grand County schools, explained that they started to see the number of students calling out sick rise last week. “This morning, about 17% of our elementary was out. And that’s been fairly consistent the last three days,” said Kay. It started off at the elementary school, but numbers have been steadily rising at the middle and high schools in the area too.
“These sort of numbers are kind of unprecedented in our area in my experience,” said Orion Rogers, Environmental Health Director, Southeast Utah Health Department.
“I think everybody, all the medical experts kind of expected that we would see a peak, and then would start to see a decline, and we just haven’t seen the decline that we were hoping for,” said Kay.
Teachers and staff at the school have been falling sick as well. “We already are short on substitutes before norovirus, so finding people to cover classes has been challenging.”
The preschool, elementary, middle and high schools in the district are closing on Friday and Monday, with virtual learning options. The hope is that keeping kids out of school can reduce chances for transmission and give custodians a few days to deep clean. “If we want to stop it and get ahead of it, so that we can finish out the school year in a healthy way, we need this pause.”
The health department says that Norovirus has probably already spread to the larger Moab community as well. “Anybody working in the food service industry really really needs to stay home if they are experiencing symptoms because we can move from having outbreaks in the schools to having outbreaks in restaurants, and that is the last thing anybody wants,” said Rogers.
The virus can spread through contaminated food or even through the air after someone vomits. “Hand washing is the most key thing and pushing kids more to wash their hands,” added Rogers.
The health department recommends cleaning with strong disinfectants, washing your hands and staying home if you are sick.
